Telecoms, internet in Pakistan

More idiotic pronouncements from the PTA. I would copy/paste the text, but the stuff is in the form of jpg.

Sirjee, jpg is not searchable!!!!! If the PTA does not GET the web, its going to be a long time before it GETS voip…. sad.

Anyway it says that “there is a general perception that usage of the Internet for telephony is allowed, whereas the Act, Rules and Regulations govern otherwise”.

I say bullshit: PTA determination Dir(LE)/45-1/VOIP/Coord/PTA dated 16 November 2002 that clearly and specifically allows use of VoIP.

Faisal Chohan writes in.

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Dear All,

Every one has read about the story of Faisal Chohan written by others. I just started writing what has happened with us in the past.

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It was the morning of 5th December, an ideal time to be in Islamabad, the coldness and drizzling made it a wonderful day. I had a few meetings setup with my clients from morning from 10:30 to 1:00.

I woke up a bit late and rushed to office without breakfast. I reached office at 9:30. Spent 30 minutes talking with different colleagues on different project and left office at 10. I accompanied my sales guy and went to a client that was from one of our 3 years old clients. We discussed a few ideas, some new projects and leave the meeting with some new prospects, promised to give him the draft of the work in next 2-3 days. It took around 40-50 minutes.

Then we had a meeting with one more client, that we were trying to get engage for more than 1 year, and now it was our first meeting with the client went well and he agreed for a presentation in the next week.

When I left the office of the second client the drizzling was stopped and it was a nice time to hang around, enjoy the drive to the Margalla hills and enjoy the lunch in Pir Sohawa. But I preferred to go to office to follow-up the clients work.

Around 1:00 PM, I entered the corridor of our office block and was surprised to see the door closed, I thought may be door is closed to avoid the noise of the office besides us that was in construction phase. When I reached in front of office door could sneak through the glass door saw a lot of people inside the office. All the employees sitting at one place, sitting surprised, helpless. I entered the office no body took notice of me, I asked from one of the employees what happened, who are these guys and what are these doing here. They told me my home (I still remember the days when we used to sleep in the office for months) was raided on the offenses that we are using VOIP for making and terminating calls.

I wondered when we did it, or thought, about doing this kind of activity. I asked myself did you spent 16 years of education thinking about negative use of technology? Did you ever earned a single rupee from illegal activities?. The answer was straight no. I could only remember 700 rupees bribe in 4 years of operations . A 2% commission given for getting a cheque after 2 months of completion of work.

Then it was start of the ordeal. It was the start of a tragedy, battle between good and evil. It was start of a show of a proof of strength of unjust, corrupt, false, incompetents in Pakistan versus miserable, young, dynamic, innovative, innocent entrepreneurs in Pakistan.

To be continued…………..

Regards,

Faisal Chohan
CEO Cogilent Solutions
www.cogilent.com

The interesting point to note is that Cogilent IP addresses are 203.99.57.232/29. The IP No. 203.99.57.224/29 mentioned in the FIR below is in use by some other customer. Hope that other customer has cleaned up their premises

Faisal Chohan is still in Adiala Jail, bail having been refused by the Additional District & Session Judge, Malik Abudl Qayum, while hearing the bail application of Faisal, and instead advised to take the bail application to High Court.

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FIR:-

FIA Crimes Circle, RWP
FIR No. 24/2006
Date: 5.12.06
Complainant: Mr.Sajjad Awan, Director PTA
Against:            M/s Cogilent, STP-II, F-5, Islamabad
 
 
Today 5th December, 2006 written complaint from Mr. Sajjad Latif Awan, Zonal Director (Enforcement) PTA Rawalpindi was received addressed to Additional Director FIA Crime Circle as under-Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has received a report from Manager Network Security & Surveillance\ (NSS) of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) Islamabad dated 30th November, 2006 that some illegal VOIP has been detected against IPs 203.99.57.224/29. The Manager NSS requested PTA to provide assistance in obtaining the final destination of the IPs reported (Copy attached as Annex-X). the same was provided accordingly (Attached Annex-Y). In response of the information above PTA has received a complain from Manager Network Security & Surveillance (NSS) of Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL) that M/S Cogilent is involved transaction of International Voice traffic by establishing and authorized computer based PABX/Gateway exchange at 205D, 2nd Floor, Evacuee Trust Complex, Agha Khan Road, F-5/1, Islamabad. The complainant has further submitted relevant analytical record of IP’s though which the voice is being used internationally. By looking into the record submitted the Manager NNS and the info collected from Web Site of Company (www.cogilent.com) and having been satisfied that the illegal business for wrongful gains and loss to Govt. exchequer has occurred, undersigned believes, that is a prima-facie case of violation of, in addition to others. Section 31 of Pakistan Telecommunication (R-Organization) Act 1996, Section 36/37 of ETO 2002 and Section 25 C of Telegraph Act, 1885. It is therefore requested the necessary investigation be carried out in the greater interest of service and save Govt. from further loss of revenue. The cop of complaint received from PTCL alongwith submitted record mentioned above is attached for ready reference. The team of PTA and PTCL will be available for any assistance required by FIA round the clock. 
 
 
As per Sensitivity of the case and a risk for leakage of information which could alert the accused and early action will be highly appreciated S/d—Sajjad Latif Awan, Zonal Director (Enforcement), Rawalpindi. ACTION BY FIA: From the contents of complaint reproduced above. Prima-facie offences under section 31 TRA, 1996, 36/36, E.T.O 2002, 25C Telegraph Act, 1885, 34/420 PPC appear to have been committed. Accordingly a case is registered under the order of the Competent Authority. Copies of FIR being sent to quarter concerned. After completing necessary formalities raid will be conducted in collaboration with PTA/PTCL officers for recovery of device/apparatus illegally installed/reportedly functioning.
 
 

Here is a Press Release from the PTA. I will attempt to analyse it below. Read on!

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http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=35307

PTA conducts raids on solid evidence

KARACHI: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said on Tuesday it has always encouraged both local and foreign investors to invest in the telecom related business and facilitated them in every possible manner.

“Besides, it is evident from the facts and figures of telecom sector that PTA has always encouraged both local and foreign investors to invest in the telecom related business and facilitated them in every possible manner,” said a PTA statement on Tuesday.

It said the PTA always conducted raids against illegal operations on solid evidence and through monitoring of the suspected facility as per law.

“The voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) is a licensed service and not an illegal activity but to run such a facility, a company has to acquire a license from PTA,” it added.

Referring to the latest raid against Cogilent Solutions -an IT firm in Islamabad - the PTA said it was running VoIP without a valid license from PTA.

“The bandwidth provided to the company was for data purposes only as written in the agreement which a DSL customer signs upon taking a connection. In contrast, it was being used for VoIP,” added the statement.

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First of all lets be clear that using VoIP is not illegal, does not need a licence. It is a technology not a service. The legality of using this technology is clear from PTA determination Dir(LE)/45-1/VOIP/Coord/PTA dated 16 November 2002 that clearly and specifically allows use of VoIP.

No where in the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-Organization) Ordinance 1996 is the term VoIP used or mentioned.

What is illegal, without a licence, is providing a “BASIC TELEPHONE SERVICE”. This usually means termination, which requires setting up of an exchange to route calls to licenced service provider numbers. Cogilent has 4 PTCL lines, no equipment for terminating to GSM or CDMA networks. So no termination in the traditional meaning of the word.

It appears that what Cogilent was doing was using their data link to make VoIP calls between its Islamabad and USA offices. The PTA sometimes thinks that this is illegal.

In any case if a customer signs an agreement with its DSL provider not to use VoIP over that DSL connection then at most this would be grounds for a civil case between the ISP and the customer. For the FIA goons to be involved on the basis of this is ridiculous and illegal.

Finally, evidence of intelligent life in Pakistan Govt.
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By Imran Ayub (undated)

KARACHI: Tremors were running across the telecom industry owing to a tug of war among different institutions as Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) has registered a protest with the federal IT ministry on Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s (PTA) raid against a call centre running job portal on suspicious illegal operations.

Sources in the industry said the PSEB high-ups appeared annoyed after last week’s incident when plain-clothed officials of the FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) and PTA raided a call centre office in Software Technology Park Islamabad and arrested the professional there seizing telecom equipment on doubts that the set-up was being used for illegal voice termination.

“In fact, the company is one of the first companies in the world to launch an integrated voice resume system based on VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) technologies,” said a senior official who asked not to be named. “And their solution is being used by companies like TRG and others to hire quality talent for their call centres in Pakistan.”

He said the joint FIA-PTA team seized the servers, mobiles and other equipments on the pretext that the company was using it for illegal VoIP termination. The authorities also locked up the company’s CEO.

Telecom sources believe the PSEB’s prompt reaction was noticed in quarters concerned.

The emerging call centres consider it a long-term damage as the raided company was serving mainly the foreign clients.

The call centre operators claim that offices of the raided Cogilent Solutions runs a very successful job portal in the country called BrightSpyre. Among their innovations, the call centre is one of the first companies in the world to launch an integrated Voice Resume system based on VoIP technologies. The situation also rings alarm in industry quarters.

“This step has damaged all efforts we as call centre operators have been doing to promote the Pakistan call centre industry, also all our efforts to attract non-resident Pakistanis to come and work for Pakistani call centre industry,” said a letter to the federal minister from Call Centres Operators Association of Pakistan.

The industry, which is set to meet with the minister on the issue, pinpoints recently privatised Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL). “For the FIA or PTA this might be a routine work, as of today PTA and PTCL have not been able to produce a single piece of equipment or data to proof this company guilty, while there are dozens of proof that PTCL is its self doing termination of grey traffic on behest of their Arab owners,” said the ACCO letter.

Pakistan software industry started testing windfall two years ago on phenomenal jump in the call centres’ operations mainly in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. More than 140 centres are currently operational in three major cities of the country offering employment to around 5,000 people.

The country’s software exports crossed $70 million during 2005-06 first time ever registering a 50 per cent growth, as western firms started turning more and more to Pakistan for IT-enabled services to cut costs and raise profits.

The authorities, who have set $108 million software export target for 2006-07, however see activities like the previous damaging for the industry and foreign interest in Pakistani industry. “We have to define the policy line, which saves interests of both local and foreign investment,” said the PSEB official. He suggested the PTA and PTCL to approach the board if they notice illegal activity by any call centre or software house.